Genes Or Socialisation? Effects of Sex Role Stereotypes on Female Risk-Aversion in Financial Decision Making

ABSTRACT - Females are more risk-averse than men and therefore tend to choose assets which impose only small risks (e.g., savings accounts). In the Western culture risk taking is a typically male attribute, also depicted in the male sex role stereotype. We therefore hypothesize that people identifying with the male sex role stereotype are more risk seeking than people describing themselves with typically female attributes, independently of biological sex. In the first study a sample of 186 participants completed a questionnaire. Results show, that sex differences in financial risk taking delineate if attachment to female and male sex roles are kept constant. In the second study an experimental design with gender priming (male, female and control group) was applied to 180 respondents. Hypotheses were only backed in the male sub-sample. Only male students indicated higher risk-taking after priming with male sex role stereotypes and less risk taking after priming with the typically female sex role.

Citation:

Katja Meier-Pesti and Elfriede Penz (2003) ,"Genes Or Socialisation? Effects of Sex Role Stereotypes on Female Risk-Aversion in Financial Decision Making", in E - European Advances in Consumer Research Volume 6, eds. Darach Turley and Stephen Brown, Provo, UT : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 222.

European Advances in Consumer Research Volume 6, 2003      Page 222

GENES OR SOCIALISATION? EFFECTS OF SEX ROLE STEREOTYPES ON FEMALE RISK-AVERSION IN FINANCIAL DECISION MAKING

Katja Meier-Pesti, University of Vienna, Austria

Elfriede Penz, University of Economics and Business Administration, Austria

ABSTRACT -

Females are more risk-averse than men and therefore tend to choose assets which impose only small risks (e.g., savings accounts). In the Western culture risk taking is a typically male attribute, also depicted in the male sex role stereotype. We therefore hypothesize that people identifying with the male sex role stereotype are more risk seeking than people describing themselves with typically female attributes, independently of biological sex. In the first study a sample of 186 participants completed a questionnaire. Results show, that sex differences in financial risk taking delineate if attachment to female and male sex roles are kept constant. In the second study an experimental design with gender priming (male, female and control group) was applied to 180 respondents. Hypotheses were only backed in the male sub-sample. Only male students indicated higher risk-taking after priming with male sex role stereotypes and less risk taking after priming with the typically female sex role.

----------------------------------------